Estate Agent lied about the viewings

[shelly0588]

I am new to this forum and wanted to get some opinion on the estate agent being the liar.
We put our property in the market 2 weeks ago with the local estate agent and they set an open house date for last weekend. I called on Friday to check if everything is in place for the open house and was told that there are 3 viewers coming for the open house for viewing.

Finally on Saturday, the estate agent arrived and we went out, as the open house was only for 1hr, we were sitting in our car next few houses away for about 20mins. What we saw was that no viewers turned up for the viewing and the estate agent also locked the house and left in 20mins.

I am very disappointed with the estate agent for being the liar and not telling us that they cant arrange any viewers. I am disappointed because we both work 5 days a week and has a toddler as well, Its really very hard to clean/scrub the whole house to make it ready for viewings.

Did anyone of you faced the same situation and what did you do about it.

I'm not sure whiskey owls quotes is correct to say he didn't do the open house. Clearly the dash cam proves that he did do the open house, and that no one turned up for the first 20 minutes at which point it was reasonable to give up waiting.
Also about being slow to get back to you and whatnot, it's unprofessional but not a breach of contract.
The only offence (and a serious one at that) was subsequently lying about people turning up and what they said.
Focus on the actual thing that was unacceptable not poor service or things out of their control, as you can't get out of a contract based on those.

Blimey OP, you like to make a drama out of things don't you?

You've caught them out so just speak to them and sort it out. No need for all the game playing and dashcam footage!

Can you not just work from home? EA normally just do what you let them get say with. As a lot of people do in their jobs. I stayed at hone one day a week and showed everyone around myself. All offers on the table were from me showing people round rather than the EA who half heartedly did it. Most people are happy to come evenings then second viewing weekend.
Definitely don’t lie back and play games though. All seems a bit daft. Hardly surprising an EA might be skipping off to the next house ASAP to make some commission on a different property.
I went with an agent that only charged a fee on sale of property and they were still useless.

Feel for you OP, but I would point out a few issues.

EA didn't take long enough to arrange a "Open House" & it should have been a couple of weeks at least, enough time to get the details viewed by all & sundry. Also an "open house day" are really there for places that the EA thinks should be snapped up & so wants to get as many buyers in on one day so there can be a biding war. 3 viewings seems to me to be a low footfall. I've been to a couple myself & had people falling over themselves to get in & out of the property within the time allotted - 1 upstairs, I downstairs, 1 walking up the path & another sitting in their car outside.

As for the "over-priced" spiel. Shock horror - an EA overprices a property to get the vendors to sign up & then tells them that they have to lower the price after a month on the books without a viewing.

I feel that you (or more your DH) is not that savvy when it comes to selling a property. I would always chase the EA the next day to get feedback on the viewings & let them know from day 1 that you will be on their case. They are selling your house & get handsomely paid for printing off a few property details & listing on-line. Last time I sold I told them that they had to SELL my property - tell prospective buyers the USP (near schools, train stations, size of rooms etc) and as Kirsty & Phil always say - you can't buy a house without actually viewing it. If your EA isn't ringing people they have on their books and getting them out to see it then they're not worth their salt.

CotswoldStrife , who is making drama??

I just came here to get some advice and clearly said that I am going this evening to talk to branch manager directly thats all I said.

@pepperpot99

It is perfectly clear that English is not this op's first language. How breathtakingly rude you are!

OP - you should have known that the EA was completely hopeless for not calling you immediately after the open day. Whether he was embarrassed or not, he should have let you know immediately. Honestly, believe it or not, there are better agents out there.

I dont believe that EA's just paid handsomely for printing off a few property details and listing on line.

If it was that easy there would be no need for EA's and we would be all doing ourselves. I have a printer and you can put your property on Rightmove without using an EA I would expect.

Where I think EA's do earn their money is taking the emotion out of a business transaction. We can often became very defensive about our own property and don't like people coming in and verbally trying to imagine what they would use each room for or that the whole house would need to be decorated etc.

My DH and I are business people and we sold our house a few years ago quickly circa £1m. We didn't have time for messing around and the EA tried as much as he could to take that worry away from us. We had a buyer who kept drip feeding various issues and I was already ready at the end to write him an email stating one more issue and we would withdraw but the EA smoothed it over and the next week we finally exchanged.

It felt like months and months and we had a restrictive covenant to contend with but in all to the point of offer to exchange it was 11 weeks . Every document for signature was signed immediately and sent back. I would call the solicitor once a week or less if I could see things were moving. I didn't want to be 'that seller' who calls every day for no real reason at all. There are searches to do, mortgages to apply for etc. All of these take a good few weeks.

I hear nothing but bad things about Purple Bricks although in a sellers market I suspect they work. In a real sellers market I might even be tempted to sell myself without using a EA but there are issues to consider such as having no background on anyone turning up and wanting to look around. I am on my own a lot and really wouldn't want to show a complete stranger around that hadn't had at least some filtering

We have moved though and very happy we are too. This is our last house so hopefully no more moving!

OP, you could have just rung the EA and said that you knew there were no viewers at the open house. But no, he had to call you and rather than tell him straight that you sat outside and there were no viewers you (or your DH) lied and said that they thought there were no viewers due to the lack of feedback. You've not been entirely truthful yourself here, have you?

Good luck with the house sale, it's a very stressful time.

How did the meeting go?

Hope you got some answers op.

And peppercorn that was just nasty, why did you say that?

Pepperpot soz

We have cancelled the contract with them.

CotswoldStrife, everyone has different ways to handle things. I dont understand how can you accuse me of being untruthful to someone who is already lying.

Shelly good, I am glad you did. Shop around for a few agents and see who your gut tells you to go with. I would be honest and open with you next instruct about your experience with these last EAs. That will let them know that you have your eyes open. Tell them honest responses are what you want to hear.
All the best in selling your house

• I mean be honest and open with whoever you next instruct to sell your house.

ladybirdsarelovely33 , Already discussed with 2 different EAs and clearly stated what has happened and what we expect.

Ha! The other EAs will dine out on that for ages